One of the last slim reeds of hope of defenders of the $9.5 billion judgment fraudulently obtained against Chevron Corporation by adjudicated racketeer and suspended lawyer Steven Donziger and his Ecuadorean allies was in Canada. Prior Canadian court decisions had essentially gutted any possibility of collection of the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron Canada, a distinct entity. The case had, it is true, not been legally dismissed, though those of you who follow this column knew that the Canadian bell would soon toll.
To recall: because Chevron Corporation never had assets in Ecuador, plaintiffs attempted to enforce the Ecuadorian judgment in other jurisdictions. In the Canadian action, Donziger and his associates sought enforcement against both Chevron Corporation, which has no assets in Canada, and Chevron Canada Limited, which was not a party to the Ecuadorian lawsuit. In April the Supreme Court of Canada rejected plaintiffs’ request to review a decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario that the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron Corporation cannot be enforced against Chevron Canada Limited. That decision left nothing for the plaintiffs to attack but the suit against Chevron itself. As we wrote, it was inevitable that the suit would be abandoned. Read more>>
